A crush-can is a device utilized to absorb the energy from a collision and thereby enhance the safety of occupants of a motor vehicle. FIG. 1a illustrates a crush-can C, of prior art design, mounted between a bumper B and a side rail R of a motor vehicle. As illustrated in FIG. 1b, a typical tapered crush-can C of prior art design is made of two halves with flanges F that are stamped separately and joined together with spot welds along the flange line. In order to assemble such a crush-can C with the front bumper B and the side rail R, brackets BR are generally required as shown in FIG. 1a. Besides the additional tooling needed for producing these brackets BR, their joining also adds to manufacturing complexity and increases overall production costs.
Prior art stamped crush-cans C as illustrated in FIGS. 1a and 1b are generally made using sheet metals of certain gauges. During an axial crash, the sheet metal folds on itself and plastically deforms to absorb energy. Bending strain is the largest on the surfaces of the folding metal sheet and virtually zero strain at the neutral surface. Thus, materials through their thickness are not utilized effectively in absorbing crash energy.
This document relates to a new and improved crush-can that may be made in a simple, inexpensive manner utilizing 3D printing. The crush-can includes a corrugated core provided between inner and outer frustoconical walls. In addition to being simple and inexpensive to produce, the new crush-can is easy to assemble as well as mount between the bumper and side rail. Further, advantageously, the new crush-can yields high specific energy absorption (SEA) to more efficiently absorb crash energy and thereby enhance the safety of a motor vehicle.